To everyone’s surprise, an endangered Australian fish have taken to seek refuge in discarded bottles in river beds, a research said on Tuesday, this is completely unlikely to the popular notions on assuming aquatic animals being vulnerable to plastics.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Csiro) in its study said discarded bottles at the bottom of Tasmania’s Derwent river were playing a key role in saving the spotted handfish from extinction reported agency Xinhua.
This popular “The handfish” which uses fins resembling hands to “walk” along the seabed, was the first marine species in the world to be listed as critically endangered.
Tim Lynch, a Csiro researcher said discarded beer bottles were an ideal breeding location for the fish after their traditional breeding grounds were destroyed by man-made structures and pest species like sea stars Lynch said,”The seastars can’t eat the bottles at least, and we often find spotted handfish hiding behind discarded bottles.”
“There are quite a few bottles out there, I think there are some places where people have been mooring up their yachts or Windjammers since the 1800s and drinking their rum and throwing them overboard”, added Lynch.
He added that the artificial habitats such as the bottles would be a large part of conservation efforts in the future. Meanwhile, the Csiro and Zoo Aquarium Association recently committed $63,000 to a project Lynch is involved in, which places plastic sticks in the Derwent river for the handfish to lay their eggs on.
In general, the female handfish typically lay 200 eggs after breeding with a male which they then care for until they hatch. Plans for a captivity breeding program have been approved which would see a small population captured and propagated at aquariums in Hobart and Melbourne.